Wednesday, April 22, 2015

Today's Important Political News and Opiunion

Update

Happy Earth Day: Earth Day Co-Founder Killed and Composted His Girlfriend. By Katie Pavlich
Excerpt: Ira Einhorn was on stage hosting the first Earth Day event at the Fairmount Park in Philadelphia on April 22, 1970. Seven years later, police raided his closet and found the "composted" body of his ex-girlfriend inside a trunk.

Comment on last post
Government logic: A military compensation commission is making recommendations to change the retirement system e.g., do away with 20 years retirement in the name of strengthening the force. At the same time women are being pushed for assignment to ground combat units. Yea, that makes perfect sense. --AW

Another Comment on Dane County Ethics Complaint
Being familiar with Sheriff's dept vehicles. That is in fact in the back lot of the PSB and its vehicle 56---and recreation truck that usually sits in the PSB basement. Mahoney probably moved it out there himself. --Anon.

Having Internet issues--hope I can post this. ~Bob

General News and Comment

GOP Pollster: Scott Walker’s Bold New Pro-American Immigration Position ‘Winning Hand’ Against Hillary Clinton
Excerpt: The left will try to caricature him as union-busting, as anti-worker. This gives him the opportunity to say ‘if you’re for amnesty, you’re anti-worker. What I am is pro-worker. It is anti government corruption. Having public sector union members expect Wisconsin taxpayers pay 100 percent of their benefits, that wasn’t fair.’ It’s a matter of fairness. Allow him to explain all of that as pro-worker not anti-worker and if he can do that he’ll be fine. Also, this gives him a distinction among a Republican field that’s getting increasingly crowded. This allows him to be seen as a working-class, populist hero—a working class governor who’s a natural populist, it’s just a natural fit. 

Senator Obama’s Letter To Condi Rice On The ‘Fact’ Of The Armenian Christian Genocide
Excerpt: In 2006, then-Senator Barack Obama wrote a letter to Secretary of State Condi Rice urging her to acknowledge historical facts and use the word “genocide” to describe the massacre of 1.5 million Armenian Christians. As President, Obama has never used the word, despite a written promise to do so.

Yo, Media: Cash for Influence Is a Pattern With the Clintons! By Jim Geraghty, Morning Jolt

Campaign Finance Reform, An Enduring Election Promise
Excerpt: Vowing to fix the country’s campaign finance system is a perennial campaign trail promise, especially for Democrats. But finding ways to reduce the amount of money in politics has bedeviled every presidential administration since Bill Clinton’s. Mr. Clinton promised campaign finance changes early in his first term. Barack Obama ran against big money in politics in 2008, even though he became the first candidate to refuse public financing in the general election since the system was introduced in the 1970s. Mrs. Clinton advocated expanding publicly-financed campaigns during her first run for office.
This election cycle, it’s no different.

Important: State Dept. contractor allegedly paid by Chinese agent to spy on Americans – yet no charges filed. By Catherine Herridge
Excerpt: Newly unsealed court documents obtained by Fox News show a State Department contractor allegedly was paid thousands by an individual thought to be a Chinese agent in exchange for information on Americans -- but despite an FBI probe, the Justice Department declined to prosecute. A November 2014 FBI affidavit, filed in the U.S. District Court for the District of Maryland, shows the bureau investigated the contractor for her admitted contact with individuals she believed to be Chinese intelligence officers. The affidavit from agent Timothy S. Pappa states the translator, Xiaoming Gao, was paid "thousands of dollars to provide information on U.S. persons and a U.S. government employee."

Video on why we can't cut government

"Resource Lacking" IRS Deliberately Ignored Your Phone Calls to Pay For Union Time And Bonuses. By Katie Pavlich 
Excerpt: But according to a new report from the House Ways and Means Committee, the IRS isn't lacking the resources to answer taxpayer phone calls, but instead prioritized resources to pay out big bonuses to employees and to fund union events instead. "During the 2015 tax-filing season, the IRS provided what its own Commissioner described as 'abysmal' customer service, blaming skyrocketing wait times for telephone and in-person assistance on agency budget cuts. The IRS even called budget cuts 'a tax cut for tax cheats,'" the report states (bolding is mine). "But a close review of the agency’s spending shows the IRS deliberately cut $134 million in funding for customer service to pay for other activities.

Free Speech: Some Thoughts and Questions. By Walter E. Williams 
Excerpt: What's the difference between the actions of the University of Oklahoma administrators and the actions of the Islamist murderers in Paris? Both found the speech in question offensive. Both took actions against the people involved in that speech. So what's the difference? It's a matter of degree, but not kind. Both were unwilling to tolerate speech they didn't like. Of course, the difference in responses is by no means trivial -- one being expulsion and the other murder.

America’s top labor union bosses raked in millions in 2014. By Jason Hart 
Excerpt: Union bosses known for bashing the rich are often millionaires themselves, paid with dues taken from workers’ paychecks. Laborers’ International Union of North America president Terry O’Sullivan, who was paid $670,403 in 2014, slammed Charles and David Koch and other critics of big government in a speech last July. ... When it comes to taking a huge paycheck from workers he claims to protect, O’Sullivan is in good company. Leaders of the International Brotherhood of Boilermakers, the International Association of Machinists and other powerful unions have done the same for years.

Trade war heating up among Democrats. By David Nakamura and Anne Gearan 
Excerpt: Hillary Rodham Clinton and other top Democrats began feuding over President Obama’s trade initiative Tuesday as his bid for a major late-term win began tearing at the party’s unity and threatened to expose old divisions ahead of the 2016 presidential election.
The tensions broke into public view after Clinton hedged during her first remarks on whether she would support an Obama-backed trade package that is gaining traction in Congress but is opposed by some on the party’s politically potent liberal wing.

Should America Really Fear China's Military? By Harry J. Kazianis
Excerpt: China’s military is growing in terms of raw power and basic power projection. Many of Beijing’s defense investments over the last two decades are aimed at limiting Washington’s ability to intervene in areas that China describes as being of “core interest.” But just how much should Washington worry about it? A good question, for sure. The answer, however, is as not as black and white as many might want it to be. And just how much should America prepare to duel with such anti-access/area-denial (A2/AD) forces in the future? (Focusing just on China's military misses the big picture. I have about 30 pages to go in The Hundred-Year Marathon: China's Secret Strategy to Replace America as the Global Superpower by Michael Pillsbury, a leading US Government China Expert. He cites a Chinese proverb from the Warring States period that China's military and civilian leaders use: Wai ru, nei fa--"On the outside, be benevolent. On the inside, be ruthless" http://www.amazon.com/Hundred-Year-Marathon-Strategy-Replace-Superpower/dp/1627790101/ref=sr_1_1_twi_2_har?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1429019870&sr=1-1&keywords=hundred+year+marathon It details how China has stolen technology and IP, built up it's cyber-attack forces, developed "Assassin's Mace" asymmetric weapons to counter our much more expensive weapons, and is working on all fronts to replace us. The military buildup in their strategic thinking comes last, so as not to alert the "old Hegemon" to their intentions. Very frightening read by one of the US government's leading China Experts. ~Bob)

Gun News

Great Video Interview: Gun-Toting Grandma Stops Would-Be Assailant. By Ben Russell
Excerpt: A Fort Worth grandmother thwarted her would-be robber Monday when she pulled a pistol from her purse and scared her assailant away.

Race Card News


Excerpt: Attention Liberal Americans! Over the last several years we have seen an increase in Blacks who have escaped from the liberal plantation. This is unacceptable. As you move through your ghetto, dodging bullets and avoiding stepping on drug needles, be on the lookout for any Black who appears to be walking on their own hind legs. Be especially wary of Blacks who appear to be wearing any type of work gear. Listen to your neighbors; if they are preaching sedition from the Democratic party please call your nearest community organizer and report them! These uppity conservative Blacks are daring to elevate themselves up the economic ladder and throw off the chains of their plantation masters! Report them! We'll come around to their house and offer them a block grant, or a boost in their welfare check....anything to bring them back into the fold!

Toni Morrison ‘wants to see a cop shoot a white unarmed teen’? She can start here
http://libertyunyielding.com/2015/04/21/toni-morrison-wants-to-see-a-cop-shoot-a-white-unarmed-teen-how-about-this-one/
Excerpt: So Toni, meet Dillon Taylor. Described as “white and Hispanic” (shades of George Zimmerman), he was shot to death by a cop in South Salt Lake, Utah, on Aug. 11, 2014, exactly two days after the bullet that felled Michael Brown became the shot heard round the world. The officer who killed Taylor, Sgt. Darin Sweeten, is moreover black, which should be good for bonus points in your eye-for-an-eye brand of score-settling. As we noted here, Taylor wasn’t shot in the back, but neither was Brown. Or take the case of Gilbert Collar, a white 18-year-old also shot and killed by a black police officer. Like Darren Wilson, the cop who shot Brown, Trevis Austin, Collar’s shooter, was not indicted by a grand jury.

Obamacare/Government Healthcare News

Excerpt: According to the Kaiser Family Foundation’s latest tracking poll, 43 percent have a generally favorable opinion of Obamacare, while 42 percent have a generally unfavorable opinion. Further, 22 percent claim Obamacare has hurt them or their family directly, while only 19 percent claim it has helped. That leaves more than half who do not think Obamacare has directly affected them. Perhaps the 25 million who have become insured or dependent on Medicaid after Obamacare rolled out will confirm its success. Actually, there has been no improvement in access to care due to Obamacare. The Commonwealth Fund reports that 35 percent of adults delayed medical care because of cost last year – versus 37 percent in 2005. (A strong majority of Americans were opposed to Obamacare in 2010 and until recently. But like most entitlement programs, they buy voters' support. It is likely here until the fiscal collapse, followed by political and social collapse. $17T in debt and up to $240T in unfunded liabilities [including Obamacare] is not sustainable very long. See The Coming Collapse of the American Republic http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5 ~Bob)

Insiders Detail Culture of Secrecy at California’s Obamacare Exchange. By Sharyl Attkisson
Excerpt: Aiden Hill’s introduction to the secretive culture at Covered California came in his first days on the job. He had just been hired to head up the agency’s $120 million call center effort when he emailed a superior April 18, 2013, and got a text message in reply: Please refrain from writing a lot of draft contract language in government email … And don’t clarify via emailNo email. ... Hill saw the text messages as a deliberate effort to avoid a paper trail subject to public disclosure. And he says some higher-ups grew increasingly upset by his efforts to flag alleged incompetence and waste.

Undocumented Democrat News

Polls: Americans’ Opposition To Mass Immigration, Guilt Trips At All Time High
Excerpt: Sixty percent of Americans are displeased with the current levels of immigration, according to Gallupa decline from 72 percent in 2008, when the country plunged into a recession, but an increase of six percent from 2014. 

Jobs Americans Won't Do: Obama Administration Admits It Granted Amnesty To Gang Member Accused Of Murdering Four
Excerpt: In a shocking admission, the Obama administration says that it should not have awarded deferred deportation status to Emmanuel Jesus Rangel-Hernandez, an illegal immigrant with known gang ties who stands accused of murdering four people in North Carolina, including former “America’s Top Model” contestant Mirjana Puhar. Rangel-Hernandez, 19, was granted amnesty under President Obama’s unilateral amnesty program, Deferred Action for Childhood Arrivals (DACA) program, U.S. Customs and Immigration Services (USCIS) director Leon Rodriguez admitted in a letter sent Friday to Iowa Sen. Chuck Grassley’s Senate Judiciary Committee.

"You're Greener than Gore" News


Should states keep their renewable energy standards? By Rob Nikolewski 
Excerpt: Some 30 states have instituted renewable portfolio standards that require them to make sure a minimum percentage of their electricity comes from clean energy sources. But James M. Taylor believes states should ditch them, contending that consumers end up paying higher utility bills while receiving no net environmental benefits at the end of the day. (We heard Taylor speak in Madison on Global Warming. Excellent fact-based speaker. ~Bob)

Earth Day Eco-Hypocrites Should Celebrate Fossil Fuels. By David Spady
Excerpt: Environmentalists use Earth Day as another opportunity to disparage the most important source of human prosperity and enriched quality of life – fossil fuels. Ironically, President Obama, whose method of travel makes him one of the single largest individual contributors of CO2 emissions, is once again firing up the engines of Air Force One on Earth Day. This time it's a flight to the Florida Everglades for a photo op highlighting global warming’s impact on the planet. Air Force One burns five gallons of fuel per minute. The flight to Florida will be around 150 minutes and use 750 gallons of fuel. Air Force One will be just a portion of the President's Earth Day carbon footprint after adding in military support aircraft, C-17 transport planes for his fleet of limos and security vehicles, and the dozens of police escort vehicles used to move him around.

Green Times for Energy Efficiency, No Thanks to Government. By Jordan Candler 
Excerpt: Are you feeling green this Earth Day? You should. The White House would have you believe our days are numbered because we’ve failed to enter another ice age (take a moment to shiver in the irony), but statistics suggest we’re in unprecedented times — in terms of energy efficiency. But here’s the kicker: Neither Earth Day nor government intervention have anything to do with our greener ways. Based on data from the Energy Information Administration, American Enterprise Institute’s Mark Perry writes, “In 2014, it required only 6,110 BTUs of energy (petroleum, natural gas, coal, nuclear and renewables) to produce each real dollar of GDP, which was the least amount of energy required to produce a dollar of real GDP in US history.” 

Some Inconvenient Man-Made Global Warming Truths. By Joe Bastardi 
Excerpt: Much of that peak was courtesy of the major uptick in tropical Pacific activity due to the cyclical warming of the Pacific Decadol Oscillation, meaning more frequent El Niños and higher activity in an ocean where two-thirds of global tropical activity typically occurs. The Atlantic warmed in the ‘90s (and is in the waning stages of that warm cycle now), but the Pacific cooling started in 2007. There will still be El Niño spikes, such as the upcoming hurricane season that’s off to a fast start in the Pacific. Globally, however, you can see there is nothing to support the hysteria “An Inconvenient Truth” was trying to push. The fact is, it’s been amazingly quiet relative to what it could be. In a way, the inconvenient truth is that a return to the '30s, '40s and '50s, with major hurricane hits on the U.S. coast, would create a big problem — because of the major build up of population, not CO2.

Why Republicans don't believe in global warming. By Robert Maranto
Excerpt: No, not Easter, when Christians celebrate Christ's resurrection. Not Passover, when Jews exult in liberation from bondage. Those are already behind us on the calendar. And I'm not talking about Ramadan, the Islamic month of fasting and devotion. No, I am referring to Earth Day, when Earth-firsters mourn the loss of the planet. Environmentalism is a faith without joy, a religion lacking hope of redemption. Every April 22, the group of Americans most determined to show their superiority can be found worshipping dirt. Environmentalists have replaced joy with scorn — scorn for followers of other faiths, and most of all scorn for the heathen who dare question the holy trinity of global warming, overpopulation, and eventual starvation.

Religion of Peace News


Interview with Raymond Ibrahim: Mideast a Preview for Western Christians. By Kathryn Jean Lopez
Excerpt: Christians and other religious minorities are being targeted, and their future in the Middle East is in peril. Raymond Ibrahim, author of Crucified Again: Exposing Islam's New War on Christians(2013) and The Al Qaeda Reader (2007), and Shillman Fellow at the David Horowitz Freedom Center and a Judith Friedman Rosen Writing Fellow at the Middle East Forum, talks about what we know.

Facing threat in Congress, Pentagon races to resettle Guantanamo inmates. By Missy Ryan and Adam Goldman
Excerpt: Facing a potential showdown with Congress, the Pentagon is racing to move dozens of detainees out of Guantanamo Bay, Cuba, in coming months before lawmakers can block future transfers and derail President Obama’s plan to shutter the U.S. military prison.

Thanks, Obama: Facing questions on migrants, Italy’s Renzi points to Libyan turmoil. By Steven Mufson
Excerpt: If there was one sour note to the White House visit by Italian Prime Minister Matteo Renzi, it was on the subject of Libya and the boatloads of migrants fleeing to Italy’s shores. ... But Renzi also said that the fault lies with the foreign powers that had helped overthrow Libyan strongman Moammar Gaddafi. “If you decide to move to remove a dictator — and he was a terrible dictator — you must think about, step by step, what institutional structures will remain,” he said in an interview at The Washington Post on Friday.

‘Killing Jews is Worship’ posters will soon appear on NYC subways and buses. By Michael E. Miller 
Excerpt: “Killing Jews is Worship that draws us close to Allah,” reads one such ad next to the image of a young man in a checkered headscarf. “That’s His Jihad. What’s yours? ... “Our objective is to go on the offensive when legal, academic, legislative, cultural, sociological, and political actions are taken to dismantle our basic freedoms and values,” it says. “AFDI acts against the treason being committed by national, state, and local government officials, the mainstream media, and others in their capitulation to the global jihad and Islamic supremacism, the ever-encroaching and unconstitutional power of the federal government, and the rapidly moving attempts to impose socialism and Marxism upon the American people.”

Boehner: Administration Blocking Facts on Benghazi
Excerpt: A Republican-led committee investigating the 2012 attacks on Americans in Benghazi, Libya, and former Secretary of State Hillary Clinton's role, is signaling that its final report could slip to just months before the presidential election if the Obama administration delays producing documents and witnesses. (Who could possibly have predicted this? --Del)

Taking Jihad to School – French Programs Emphasize Secularism. By Abigail R. Esman
Excerpt: On a street in Paris's popular 6th Arrondissement, men in camouflage wielding Famas assault rifles patiently stand guard throughout the day. It is an unexpected sight amidst the chic designer boutiques and crowded restaurants, but one a hotel attendant nearby explains with a knowing glance: the building they guard houses an organization for Jews.
This is life now in Paris after the terrorist attacks that took 17 lives in January – including four Jews, massacred at the kosher Hyper Cacher market in the hours before the Sabbath.

A global surge in refugees leaves Europe struggling to cope. By Anthony Faiola 
Excerpt: As Europe confronts a rapidly escalating migration crisis driven by war, persecution and poverty in an arc of strife from West Africa to Afghanistan, even high-level European officials are beginning to admit the obvious. The region’s refugee management system is broken. Globally, the world is witnessing a momentous period of instability and conflict that has produced what the United Nations now describes as the largest pool of refugees, asylum-seekers and internally displaced persons since the ravages of World War II. (and who is producing war and instability? ~Bob)

Interesting: Secret Files Reveal the Structure of Islamic State. By Christoph Reuter
Excerpt: In fact, not even those who shot and killed him after a brief firefight in the town of Tal Rifaat on a January morning in 2014 knew the true identity of the tall man in his late fifties. They were unaware that they had killed the strategic head of the group calling itself "Islamic State" (IS). The fact that this could have happened at all was the result of a rare but fatal miscalculation by the brilliant planner. The local rebels placed the body into a refrigerator, in which they intended to bury him. Only later, when they realized how important the man was, did they lift his body out again.

*****
Robert A. Hall is a Marine Vietnam Veteran who served five terms in the Massachusetts State Senate. He is the author of The Coming Collapse of the American Republic. http://www.amazon.com/Coming-Collapse-American-Republic-prevent/dp/1461122538/ref=sr_1_5?s=books&ie=UTF8&qid=1304815980&sr=1-5 For a free PDF of Collapse, e-mail him at tartanmarine(at)gmail.com. Hall’s eleven books are listed here:

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